Keyword: airstrike

Arab media outlets have reported that the IDF targets inside Syria near the capital city of Damascus early Wednesday morning. The incident has yet to be confirmed by Israeli sources, and the IDF has refused to comment on the report. According to the claims, large explosions were heard around the El-Mezzeh airbase just outside of Damascus. No casualties were reported in the attack. A Syrian state media service report by SANA claimed the attack was made by land-based missile batteries, with no reference to Israeli air units. "At 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles from...

Arab media reports that Israeli aircraft targeted the Syrian army and a Hezbollah convoy near Damascus. Arab media reported on Wednesday morning that Israeli aircraft carried out two airstrikes in the Damascus area overnight Tuesday. One report said that the first airstrike hit a weapons warehouse belonging to the Syrian army near Damascus. The second attack, according to the report, targeted a convoy of cars belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist group. Other Syrian websites reported that the attack on the Hezbollah convoy was meant to thwart a delivery of missiles from Syria to Lebanon. According to these reports, the convoy...

Ankara said it will retaliate after three of its soldiers were killed in a suspected air strike by the Syrian Air Force in the province of Aleppo. The attack occurred last night during a Turkey-backed militants operation in northern Syria, the Turkish military said in a statement. 10 other soldiers were wounded in the air strike that it “assessed to have been carried out by Syrian regime forces”. No details about the location of air strike have been provided. “It is clear that some people are not happy with this battle Turkey has been fighting against Daesh (Islamic State). This...

I was told via Direct Message that Turkish forces in al Bad in Syria were hit with 2 air strikes today. So far no one is admitting to doing it. But today is 1 year since Turkish aircraft shot down a Russian Aircraft in disputed territory near the border of Turkey and Syria. Coincidence? Guess we will see. I was told there were many casualties.

The US military has launched strikes on radar sites in Yemen, the Pentagon announced, according to Reuters. The move comes in response to failed attacks on the US navy destroyer USS Mason. According to the Pentagon’s initial assessments, three “radar sites” in the Houthi rebel-controlled area of Yemen were destroyed in the attack. The US military vowed to respond to “any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic,” according to a statement cited by Reuters.

The United States said Thursday it was "appalled" by Syrian government air strikes Thursday that killed more than 30 people - including children - in a key rebel bastion east of the capital of Damascus. The raids took place in Deir Al-Assafir, a town in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, one of the areas in Syria where a fragile ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia has been in place since February 27. "The United States is appalled by aerial strikes March 31, reportedly by the Assad regime, on a school and hospital in the Damascus suburb of Deir...

The head of the most powerful Syrian insurgent group in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus was killed on Friday in a Russian air strike on the secret headquarters of his group, rebel sources said. The Syrian army confirmed the death of Zahran Alloush, whose Jaysh al Islam grouping has thousands of fighters and is the biggest rebel faction in the area. Several rebel group leaders have been killed since Russia launched its air campaign on Sept. 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad, whose troops had suffered a series of setbacks in a civil war now nearing the end of...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States targeted British Islamic State leader "Jihadi John" in an air attack in northern Syria which Britain said would "strike at the heart of Islamic State" if the militant's death is confirmed. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the death of Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as Jihadi John after appearing in videos showing the killings of U.S. and British hostages, could not yet be confirmed and the Pentagon said it was still assessing the effectiveness of the strike. But a U.S. official said Thursday's attack in the town of Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto...

The Russian Defense Ministry denies US allegations that Russian warplanes in Syria are bombing regions, which are out of President Assadâ€™s control, rather than terrorist infrastructure, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday. He explained that US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told Congress hearings held earlier that the Russian air group in Syria delivered most of its strikes at regions which were no longer under the control of President Assadâ€™s regime rather than at terrorists. "If we analyze what various US officials say, there is an impression that the location of terrorist-held facilities is the most...

The leader of an al Qaeda-linked group allegedly bent on attacking the West has been killed in an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria, U.S. officials said Sunday. Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi citizen whose real name is Abdul Mohsen Adballah Ibrahim al Charekh, was the highest-ranking member of the Khorasan Group -- a collection of veteran al Qaeda jihadis which had moved into Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. He was killed in an airstrike in northwest Syria on Thursday, the statement said. Nasr, who was once al Qaeda's chief financial officer and had been designated a Specially...

Iraqi officials claim that their air forces struck the convoy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as well as a meeting of other ISIS leaders in western Iraq yesterday. The US is skeptical that Baghdadi got hit, and ISIS sources flat-out deny it, but the Iraqis insist that they at least hit the self-styled caliph in the air strike. Reuters reports that the Iraqis claim they got eight ISIS leaders at the meeting, at least: Eight senior figures from Islamic State were killed in an air strike while meeting in a town in western Iraq, but the groupâ€™s reclusive leader Abu...

KABUL — The acting governor of Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province said Sunday that Taliban fighters had been routinely firing “small and heavy” weapons from the grounds of a local hospital before it was apparently hit by a U.S. airstrike over the weekend. In an interview, Hamdullah Danishi said the Doctors Without Borders compound was “a Taliban base” that was being used to plot and carry out attacks across the provincial capital, Kunduz city. “The hospital campus was 100 percent used by the Taliban,” Danishi said. “The hospital has a vast garden, and the Taliban were there. We tolerated their firing...

KABUL – U.S. forces may have mistakenly bombed a hospital in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 19 people, including three children, in an incident that will likely raise new questions about the scope of American involvement in the country’s 14-year war. In a statement, Doctors Without Borders said an airstrike “partially destroyed” its trauma hospital in Kunduz, where the Afghan military has been trying to drive Taliban fighters from the city. The airstrike killed at least 12 Doctors Without Borders staff members, the group said. Three children were also reportedly killed. At least 37 other people were seriously...

PARIS — In France’s first airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, warplanes destroyed a training camp, President François Hollande announced on Sunday. At a news conference in New York, where he had arrived for the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Hollande said that the warplanes had attacked the training camp in eastern Syria after it had been identified by French air surveillance with help from the coalition of Western and Middle Eastern states conducting the air campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. “Our forces reached their objectives: The camp was completely destroyed,” Mr....

The threat of a limited surgical naval or air force bombing of critical nuclear installations--with no ground troops The contention that there are only two options in dealing with the rogue Ayatollahs’ regime—negotiation or military option, which supposedly amounts to war—defies reality. Such a contention is either mistaken or misleading. The threat of a limited surgical naval or air force bombing of critical nuclear installations—with no ground troops - would not amount to a war, would deter the Ayatollahs, possibly moderating their nature, and—if activated - would permanently cripple their pursuit of nuclear capabilities, and could be repeated if necessary...

Reports are circulating that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might've been seriously injured during an airstrike operation, leading the terror group to choose a former Iraqi physics teacher as his replacement. Hisham al Hashimi, an Iraqi government adviser, told Newsweek earlier this week that al-Baghdadi was wounded back in March, and is unable to carry out his day-to-day duties. He said that Abu Alaa Afri has been selected to stand in as his replacement, and could take over permanently if al-Baghdadi dies. "After Baghdadi's wounding, he [Afri] has begun to head up Daesh [arabic term for ISIS] with the help...

Saudi-led coalition jets have bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen's third city of Taiz, hours after announcing the end of a military campaign against them. The strikes followed the fall of the base outside Taiz of an army unit loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Fighting was also reported in the second city of Aden, Lahj's provincial capital Huta, and the town of Daleh. On Tuesday, Riyadh declared its month-long campaign, which sought to restore the president, had achieved its goals. But it warned that it would continue to take action against the Houthis as needed. The UN says at least...

A Saudi-led coalition will end "Operation Decisive Storm" -- its nearly monthlong airstrike campaign in Yemen -- by the end of Tuesday, and a new undertaking called "Operation Restoring Hope" will begin, Saudi state-run TV reported without immediately elaborating. The aim is to bring back Yemen's "security and stability through establishing a political process," said a statement from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

The military chief of Syria's al-Nusra Front militant group has been killed in an air strike, the jihadist group has said on social media. Three other leaders were killed along with Abu Homam al-Shami, it says. Syria's state-run news agency said the army had targeted Nusra leaders as they met in northern Idlib province, the Associated Press reported. Al-Nusra is one of the most powerful groups fighting the army and has long been seen as an affiliate of al-Qaeda. It was involved in a major attack on the Air Force Intelligence headquarters in the embattled city of Aleppo on Wednesday.

An ISIS chemical weapons expert was killed in an airstrike on Saturday near Mosul, Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Friday. Abu Malik worked in a chemical weapons production facility under Saddam Hussein before joining al Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, Central Command said. He then joined ISIS, allowing the terrorist group to make use of his experience in chemical weapons capabilities, according to Central Command. "His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL's (ISIS') ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people," the statement said. The...

An ISIS chemical weapons expert who used to work for Saddam Hussein was killed last weekend during a coalition airstrike. Abu Malik died Jan. 24 near Mosul, according to a statement released by U.S. Central Command Friday. In the past, Malik had worked at one of Hussein’s chemical weapons facilities. He joined al-Qaeda in 2005, then later became a member of ISIS. According to the statement, his background provided ISIS “with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability.” His death should “temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL’s ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against...

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories are expected to heighten after Israeli aircraft bombed a site in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip on Friday (December 19). The target is believed to have been a Hamas base. According to a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the attack was in response to a rocket fired from Gaza, which hit an open area in the south of Israel. There are no reports of casualties following either strike. Israel’s attacks are the first since a seven-week war on Gaza ended three months ago. The incident is expected...

A militant of the Islamic State terror group who sold kidnapped Yazidi girls in a slave market in Syria has reportedly been killed along with 34 other ISIS fighters in a U.S.-led airstrike in Mosul in northern Iraq. Mustafa Sulaiman Qarabash, also known as Abu Husam al-Iraqi and who is responsible for selling kidnapped Yazidi girls, is said to have been killed near the al-Faruq mosque in Tal Afar close to the Syrian border, reported Rudaw, a Kurdish media network, attributing it to Kurdish official sources. Husam was among 35 ISIS armed men who were killed, and their base destroyed,...

Jihadi John, the Briton who beheaded two British and two American hostages held by Islamic State terrorists, has been injured in a US-led air strike, according to reports received by the Foreign Office. The masked ‘executioner’ with a London accent is believed to have narrowly escaped death when he attended a summit of the group’s leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border last Saturday. The meeting was targeted by American and Iraqi jets.

Wars usually end only when the defeated aggressor believes it would be futile to resume the conflict. Lasting peace follows if the loser is then forced to change its political system into something other than what it was. Republican Rome learned that bitter lesson through three conflicts with Carthage before ensuring that there was not going to be a fourth Punic War. Germany fought three aggressive wars before it was finally defeated, occupied and reinvented. America defeated Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, inflicting such damage that they were all unable to continue their resistance. And then, unlike its...

Given that the â€śmoderatesâ€ť are our allies, you would think this problem could be avoided by coordinating with them on where to attack and where not to. But thereâ€™s a hitch: We â€¦ donâ€™t trust them enough to rely on the intelligence they give us.Youâ€™d trust a group thatâ€™s fighting so closely alongside Al Qaeda (a.k.a. the Nusra Front) that bombing the latter means collateral damage for the former, wouldnâ€™t you? Since U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria began on Sept. 22, there has been no coordination between the U.S. military and its alleged partners on the ground, according...

One of the Islamist “activists” who attacked IDF soldiers aboard the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010 has reportedly been killed in a US airstrike in Syria, as he was fighting alongside Islamist terrorists. 40-year-old Bulent Alniak was killed in a US airstrike in Idlib, northwestern Syria, on a target identified as belonging to the “Islamic State” terrorist group (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL), according to the Turkish World Bulletin website. According to that report, Alniak was carrying out “aid work” ahead of the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. But other sources have suggested a somewhat less peaceful...

Three senior members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) - including an aide to its leader - were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, a senior Iraqi security official told NBC News Thursday. The strike on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul killed Abu Hajar Al-Sufi, an aide to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as well as an explosives operative and the military leader of nearby Tel Afar, the source said on condition of anonymity. Al Arabiya cited the Iraqi Defense Ministry saying Baghdadi's aide had been killed.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has uploaded a video which shows how the IDF calls off Gaza airstrikes upon realizing that there are innocent civilians in the area. In this video, showing a planned airstrike from Thursday, the airstrike was cancelled when the pilot realized that children were near his target. During the current escalation, Hamas has openly boasted about the "success" of its strategy of using civilians as human shields, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice. Hamas has been encouraging as many noncombatants as possible to "protect" its positions with their bodies.

Yesterday the Iraqi military launched an air assault into the insurgent-held town of Tikrit. At least three helicopters landed at a stadium in Tikrit University, which is about six miles north of the city. According to Reuters, "the helicopters were shot at as they flew low over the city and landed in a stadium at the city's university." One of the helicopters was said to have been shot down. "One helicopter crash-landed in the stadium. Another left after dropping off troops and a third remained on the ground. Army snipers were positioning themselves on tall buildings in the university complex,"...

United States officials are not entirely confident they know who is behind the airstrikes being reported against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria forces in western Iraq. From ABC News: According to the U.S. official, the United States has “pretty good information that the Syrians are behind the fighter aircraft bombing in western Al Anbar,” a province in Iraq that includes the Syrian border. The official said the United States is still trying to gather more information that Syria was behind the strikes...A U.S. official also said it was not clear whether the Iraqi government requested or authorized Syrian air...

The U.S. military conducted an airstrike in southern Somalia on Sunday against a suspected militant leader, a U.S. military official told CNN. The target was described by the official as a "senior leader" affiliated with al Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia. The United States has not yet been able to determine whether the target was killed, the official said.

President Obama is considering a strike on Syrian military targets involving sea-launched cruise missiles or possibly long-range bombers that would last no more than two days, according to senior administration officials and reported by Karen DeYoung and Anne Gearan of The Washington Post. Reuters reports that the West has told the opposition to expect a strike "within days." The limited strike would seemingly be a response to allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people before dawn on August 21. Hundreds were killed and thousands suffered "neurotoxic symptoms." The design of the potential attack implies sending...

Several Egyptian terrorists were killed in an air strike in Sinai on Friday, which some claimed Israel had carried out. Security sources and witnesses said the terrorists were struck as they prepared to launch a rocket into Israel, reported AFP. The source of the strike was not immediately clear. Some sources spoke of an Israeli air strike conducted from Israeli air space and others credited the Egyptian military. Witnesses said at least five members of a cell led by local Islamist militants were killed in the raid. Egypt's army said two explosions were heard at around 4:15 p.m. local time...

US opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program may be softening, a former head of IDF intelligence said Wednesday. “The American stance on an Israeli strike against Iran has changed dramatically recently,” said Amos Yadlin, who served as chief of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate from 2006 to 2010. “In 2012 the [Americans'] red light was as red as it can get, the brightest red,” Yadlin said in an interview with Army Radio Wednesday morning. “But the music I’m hearing lately from Washington says, ‘If this is truly an overriding Israeli security interest, and you think you want to...

Israeli officials on Saturday reportedly confirmed the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike against Syria and say it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles. The officials said the shipment was not of chemical arms, but of “game changing” weapons bound for the terror group Hezbollah. One official said the target was a shipment of advanced, long-range ground-to-ground missiles.

The Syrian announcement of an Israeli air strike on a military site near Damascus Wednesday, Jan. 30, drew strong condemnation from Moscow the next day: "Such action if confirmed would amount to unacceptable military interference in the war-ravaged country," said the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry Thursday. "If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violate the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it." Israel has made no comment on the Damascus statement which described in detail an...

An Israeli strike on a Gaza City high-rise today has killed one of the top militant leaders of Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militant group said. The second strike in two days on the downtown Gaza City building that houses the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, has killed Ramez Harb, who is a leading figure in Al Quds Brigades militant wing, according to a text message Islamic Jihad sent to reporters. Witnesses told the AP that the Israeli airstrike, part of a widening effort to suppress Hamas rocket fire into Israel, struck the building Monday afternoon,

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terror group vowed to retaliate against Israel on Sunday after announcing that two men killed earlier in an IAF air strike were members of the group, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. The group confirmed that Izz Addin Abu Nuseira, 23, and Ahmad Abu Fatayir, 22, were affiliated with its Nasser Saladin Brigades. Both were killed when the IAF struck targets in the terrorist haven of Gaza for the fourth time in 24 hours Sunday afternoon. The IAF said the targets were part of a terror squad that had fired a rocket at Israel a...

President Barack Obama on Sunday expressed condolences to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari for the deaths last month of 24 Pakistani troops, saying the NATO airstrikes that killed them were not a "deliberate attack." A White House statement said Obama placed a call early Sunday to Zardari expressing his regrets over the "tragic loss" and promising a "full investigation" into the incident, which has plunged the two uneasy allies into a diplomatic crisis. Obama "made clear that this regrettable incident was not a deliberate attack on Pakistan and reiterated the United States' strong commitment to a full investigation," the statement...

Nato's number two insurgent target 'killed in air strike' A senior al-Qaeda figure and Nato's second-highest priority insurgent in Afghanistan has been killed in an air strike, following a four-year manhunt. By Jeremy Kelly in Kabul 4:38 PM BST 26 Apr 2011 The death of Saudi Arabian national Abdul Ghani, also known as Abu Hafs al-Najdi, from a coalition air strike on April 13 ends a four-year hunt. Nato said Ghani directed al-Qaeda operations in the eastern border province of Kunar, where he was killed, including the recruiting and training of fighters as well as planning attacks against Afghan and...

The Israeli military said on Saturday a top militant killed in a predawn raid was “directly and physically involved” in the 2006 capture of Gilad Shalit, a soldier Israel believes is still being held in the Gaza Strip. Tayser Abu Snima, who Palestinian medics said was killed in an air strike on a vehicle along the Gaza-Egyptian border, was a key figure in the Hamas Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip. The Israeli statement called Abu Snima a senior Hamas operative in Gaza and said he was “directly and physically involved in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit,”...

Ajdabiya, Libya - An apparent NATO airstrike slammed into a rebel combat convoy Thursday, killing at least five fighters and sharply boosting anger among anti-government forces after the second bungled mission in a week blamed on the military alliance. (Snip) In a sign of the hair-trigger tensions along the front, thousands of civilians and fighters raced out of the rebel-held city of Ajdabiya in eastern Libya after reports that Moammar Gadhafi's forces gained ground in the chaos after the bombing. Some militiamen shouted insults against NATO as they retreated. "We don't want NATO anymore!" cried fighter Basit bin Nasser. Another

Colonel Gaddafi appeals to 'our son' Barack Obama to tell Nato to lay off by Reporter, Daily Mirror 7/04/2011 COLONEL Gaddafi yesterday made a direct appeal to Barack Obama to halt “an unjust war” against Libya. He also wished the US President good luck in the next election. In a rambling, three-page letter littered with errors, Gaddafi implored Obama to stop the Nato-led air campaign “against a small people of a developing country”. And he told him: “You are in a position to keep Nato off the Libyan affair for good.” Gaddafi said democracy could not be built by bombing,...

Two people were killed in an attack on a car near Port Sudan on Tuesday, which police suggested was a missile fired from the sea, while state media and a regional government official blamed a foreign aircraft. Witnesses at the scene near the airport at Sudan's main port city said the small car was destroyed and the two charred bodies of its passengers could be seen.

Initial assessment of French air strikes in Libya The expansion of war aims, beyond those recommended by the UN resolution, is becoming acute. Operations against Libya are in their sixteenth day without them showing clearly the French targets. Initially, Saturday, March 19, the war aims were well defined by Nicolas Sarkozy during his speech after the summit at the Elysee, "In the absence of a cease-fire and to withdrawal of armed forces, summit participants agreed to implement all necessary means, including military means, to oppose any aggression. " Thus expressed, the French concept of the implementation of resolution 1973 the...

KABUL, Afghanistan (Mar. 23, 2011) – Coalition forces conducted a precision airstrike targeting a Haqqani network leader, killing two insurgents and wounding one in Terayzai district, Khost province today. The Haqqani leader is involved in the supply of weapons, ammunition, and vehicles to HQN operatives and participates in direct attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. Coalition forces called in a precision air strike and the targeted vehicle was destroyed. Just prior to the weapon impact, an unassociated civilian vehicle and two pedestrians walking in a wadi appeared, next to the target vehicle. Immediately following the strike, the civilian vehicle came...

KABUL, Afghanistan (Jan. 25, 2011) – Coalition forces conducted a precision air strike targeting a group of armed insurgents in Gelan district, Ghazni province, killing two insurgents yesterday. A senior Taliban leader for the district was reportedly in the group of armed insurgents. He is responsible for improvised explosive device and direct fire attacks on coalition forces and the provincial reconstruction team. The Taliban leader is closely associated with other senior leaders in the area. Recent reporting indicates he led a rocket propelled grenade attack on coalition forces. Following intelligence tips, the precision air strike was conducted after ensuring no...

KABUL, Afghanistan (Jan. 22, 2011) — Coalition forces targeted the Taliban shadow district governor for Hisarak, Laghman province, killing more than 10 insurgents with two precision air strikes in the province yesterday. The targeted Taliban shadow district leader conducted attacks against Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials and coalition forces. He poses a threat to the security of Afghan officials and coalition forces in Hisarak and Sherzad districts. According to recent reporting he has acquired improvised explosive device material, machine guns and rockets for future attacks. Multiple armed insurgents, including the targeted Taliban leader, were identified in a...